Health and Safety

The number of construction workers who died on site last year was 16.7 per cent lower than the five-year average, official figures reveal. Statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed that 30 construction workers died during the period between April 2021 and March this year. This was…

The government has apologised for “disturbance” to residents from activities related to the ongoing project work at Grenfell Tower. Matt Hogan, a civil servant at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), said works were attempted outside normal hours on two occasions in the past month. Last year,…

Construction industry charity the Lighthouse Club is encouraging workers to talk to colleagues about their problems as part of a month-long campaign to tackle mental health issues. The charity’s ‘Talk to Us’ initiative, which will run throughout July, asks construction workers to open up and share their struggles with friends,…

A Liverpool man has been charged with fraud, following an investigation into the misuse of forms designed to identify cladding fire risk. Merseyside Police said Thomas Michael Clarke, 33, of Knowsley Lane, Prescot, would appear in court on 3 August. A 19-month probe was triggered after residents of high-rise apartment…

A worker from Hinkley Point C (HPC) has responded to a Daily Mail story that branded construction workers who shared their feelings with colleagues as “woke” builders. Construction worker Jamie Busby addressed the newspaper in a video, which was shot by the GMB Union. He explained that talking to colleagues on site…

A block of flats that caught fire close to Grenfell Tower in West London was clad with unsafe materials identified by Kier earlier this year and due for removal, Construction News can reveal. Eight fire engines and about 60 firefighters were called out to a fire at a high-rise block…

A man has died falling from height, after the section of metal grating on a pipe bridge he was standing on gave way. His employer, demolition contractor CBR02 Ltd, has been fined £5,000 for failing to record the “extremely hazardous condition” of the pipe bridge at Longannet Power Station in…

A high-rise apartment building remains covered with dangerous cladding as the involved parties argue over liability. Birmingham’s Islington Gates apartment block remains covered in unsafe cladding, which was discovered after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, when 72 people died. The 141-apartment block is not covered in aluminium composite material…

The methods used to test cladding for fire risk are “full of mistakes from beginning to end”, an expert on the subject has told the Grenfell Inquiry. The inquiry quizzed José Torero on the competency of the measures last week. Torero, a professor of civil engineering at University College London,…

The 18-metre threshold used to ban the use of flammable materials on high-rise buildings is “completely arbitrary” and driven by public fear, a Conservative MP has warned. Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the government changed fire and building rules to prohibit the use of combustible materials on the external walls…